Just rereading the NYT article that came out tonight. It shows a lot of discontent with the DNC policy of rebuilding state parties. I see both sides, I chose one to stand with. But I understand the other position.
From the NYT tonight: The Inside AgitatorI knew there were memos in mid 2003 about Dean, but I did not know they had a meeting, 50 of them. I don't have the link but someone sent me a snip they had saved. I even did a search to find the links, but couldn't even find it archived.
With the renewed attention on Dean, fundraising, and grassroots this week and in the weeks to come, especially with their unhappiness at the strategy..this is just to remind. The NYT article out tonight pretty well shows there is still so much discontent.
I mean, really. To find out they actually had a meeting is a little much.
To be clear, people win and lose on their own...that is not what this post is about. I just feel that it is the grassroots and new people in the party they went after back then, and I fear there may be some of now. If they went so far as to have a meeting back then, I sort of worry about now a little.
The 'D' in DLC Doesn't Stand for Dean (David Von Drehle, May 15, 2003, Washington Post)
More than 50 centrist Democrats, including Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, met here yesterday to plot strategy for the "New Democrat" movement. To help get the ball rolling they read a memo by Al From and Bruce Reed, the chairman and president of the Democratic Leadership Council. The memo dismissed Dean as an elitist liberal from the "McGovern-Mondale wing" of the party -- "the wing that lost 49 states in two elections, and transformed Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one."
"It is a shame that the DLC is trying to divide the party along these lines," said Dean spokesman Joe Trippi. "Governor Dean's record as a centrist on health care and balancing the budget speaks for itself."
As founder of the DLC, From has been pushing the Democratic Party to the right for nearly 20 years. He was in tall cotton, philosophically speaking, when an early leader of the DLC, Bill Clinton, was elected president in 1992. As Clinton's domestic policy guru, Reed pushed New Democrat ideas -- such as welfare reform -- that were often unpopular with party liberals.
"We are increasingly confident that President Bush can be beaten next year, but Dean is not the man to do it," Reed and From wrote. "Most Democrats aren't elitists who think they know better than everyone else."
Now there is one more paragraph that shocked me about what they said about Gephardt. This shows the mindset they had in 03 about health insurance. I assume it has not changed.
The memo took a milder shot at Rep. Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) for his proposal to guarantee universal health insurance coverage, which From and Reed deemed far too costly. "Every primary season unleashes the pander virus," they wrote.
And here are more of the memos from mid 2003.
Being called "fringe"
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